


A Walk in the Park

by OneManBikerGang



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, I'm honestly not quite sure how to tag this appropriately, walk in a park
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 19:03:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16624676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneManBikerGang/pseuds/OneManBikerGang
Summary: It's not actually a park, but it's about as close as you can get in Arcadia Bay, and Kate Marsh will happily take that if she can spend some quality time with her girlfriend.





	A Walk in the Park

Arcadia Bay didn’t have too many parks. If you wanted a pleasant stroll in nature, you were pretty much limited to strolling about the area leading up to the lighthouse, alongside the unclaimed patches of land surrounding the junkyard. Really, unless you were in love with the idea of walking about surrounded by falling leaves and wildlife that’d dart away at clumsy footsteps, you were best riding out of town to find somewhere.

Kate Marsh loved that aesthetic more than most things out there. A few beloved childhood memories of traipsing about with her siblings on the summer holidays, coupled with limited exposure to parks and the like as she got older, led to it having a soft spot in her heart she struggled to shake off. Kate could quite happily spend an entire afternoon walking around with no purpose in mind, so long as she could be surrounded by nature and silence.

It didn’t take too much to convince Max to spend a happy afternoon walking about- really, all it took was a suggestion that they could get away from Chloe & Victoria’s countless arguments for her to agree without hesitation. No matter what, even if Chloe was her best friend & Victoria… A friend, they could still be fairly intolerable to deal with, whether they were discussing their plans for the weekend or breaking out into another argument about who’d stolen who’s shirt.

Again. Great friends. Terrible to be around sometimes.

From Kate’s perspective, it’d all worked out personally. She’d gotten away from her slightly overbearing friends for a few hours with her girlfriend, she got to stretch her legs, and did she mention that she got to spend time with Max? Even after being together for a few months now- something that still made Kate’s heart skip whenever she thought about it- Kate would always find a thrill in spending time with Max. Once she’d gotten past that initial, awful anxiety about being with her…

She wouldn’t say things were perfect. They were both getting used to hat was, essentially, their first proper relationship. They hit those stumbling blocks that never popped up in the lead up to actually dating, but were infinitely more anxiety inducing than what they’d been worried about. Sure, it hadn’t ended with them hating each other but, by the same merit, it was almost worse to feel suffocated in a relationship- they were both thankful to understand they needed more space than they were giving each other, but it was still awful to deal with.

Because it ended with them being were they were, Kate felt she had no grounds to complain. Eight months ago, she could have never imagined holding hands with Max in public. Four months ago, she never could have imagined the two being so open with each other. And now? It all felt natural, something that they both deserved without question. Kate knew it was cheesy to be so happy, but…. They were young, right? This was the time when they were supposed to be feeling adorably cheesy!

“What’s got you smiling so much?” Max’s voice had a wonderful quality of never quite sounding questioning, even when she was being direct and to the point- Kate’d once seen her talk to Chloe for an hour before the punk twigged on to the fact Max was asking what she wanted for christmas. Again, cute, but…. It was a touch odd to deal with, and that was coming from a girl who otherwise hated direct questions and unnerving things of that nature.

“Oh, uhm. Just… I haven’t done this for a long time. I mean, we were at Brooke’s presentation thing, but not…” Not for the first time, Kate wished things were as easy to say as they were to put down on paper. She spend more than enough time on even drawing the sketches for a page, but she didn’t have to worry about stumbling over her words or saying something that might confuse Max in that medium. Here and now, all those little worries and anxieties were annoyingly present. 

“Not walking about like this. Getting to spend time with you, without anybody else about about, just… Enjoying the scenery.” Squeezing Max’s hand, Kate didn’t bother fighting the gentle flush that was rising to her cheeks. After far too long, she’d long since learned to accept it. Plus… On more than one occasion, Max had said it made her look cute. That was more important to her than she’d let on, really. 

Max’s opinion was something that Kate was taking quite a lot of attention from as of late, really. The odds were quite good that Max hadn’t noticed at all, but a single throwaway comment was the sole reason Kate was wearing her favourite summer dress that day. It… Wasn’t perfectly suited for traipsing about in the autumn, sure, but Max also seemed to find the floral pattern on it adorable, so… Kate was more than happy to wear it.

“I get you. I remember, the first time I was ever on a date-” A statement that was coupled with.. Not quite a grimace, but it wasn’t exactly a memory Max looked back on favourably- “I loved it, just because it was the first time I’d been to the aquarium since I was a kid. The guy was a jackass, looking back, but… It was nice.” Grinning over at Kate, Max felt another surge of adoration towards her- a burning sensation that, as ever, made her happy to do anything with Kate, from a pleasant stroll like this to… Okay, hunting for Alice in the rain after she somehow escaped wasn’t a fun memory, but it was still time with Kate. That counted for more than something.

“You might need to go there with Chloe if you want to go again. Fish are…” Looking to the side, Kate scrunched her face up and trembled, trying to not think about it. “Not my favourite thing.” Not exactly wanting to linger on the thought, Kate actually paid a touch of attention to the path underneath their feet- up until now, the crunching of leaves underneath their feet had just been back background noise and nothing else. 

But now, Kate could realise just how… Beautiful everything was. In the distance, Kate could see the path that’d take them up to the lighthouse- the winding path she’d only traced a few times before, and could do better with visiting more often. Only the occasional leaf fell from the mostly bare trees on either side of the path by now, with the rest carpeting the floor in a beautiful mixture of colours- ranging from light yellow to deeper reds and the occasional black, leaving it feeling as if they were walking upon something otherwise ethereal, where humans shouldn’t quite trespass. The effect was only marred by the crunching underfoot- a lack of rainfall over the past few days, coupled with the trail not being a popular spot, led to Max and Kate being among the first to walk here in quite some time.

“I’ll keep it in mind. It’s more fun if I can go somewhere you’ll enjoy, anyway.” Max lapsed into a unusual silence for her- even with her own admitted awkwardness, she didn’t enjoy leaving them in complete and utter silence. Contribute it to autism she was only recently diagnosed with, anxiety she was long since used to or just plain awkwardness, being that quiet didn’t quite suit her- which was why it was, in her own way, quite in character for her to finally speak up.

“Maybe… Seattle?”Swallowing, Max would have kept walking ahead if it wasn’t for the fact that Kate was having her anchored in place, thanks to standing still. Swallowing nervously, the brunette turned to face Kate properly, hoping her statement wasn’t… Out of place. Just as a single question, it didn’t make too much sense. But when you added all the context onto it- a request to finally meet Max’s parents now they were dating, it had… Quite a bit more weight to it.

Which was why Kate didn’t wait to answer. More than anything else, she knew how much something like that would mean to Max- out of the pair, Max was the one who had both parents who’d be happy to hear about them dating. Meeting them, in Kate’s eyes, would be a great time. “I… Have pretty much most Friday afternoons off right now, with Miss Hoida being sick still. I’m happy to make the trip whenever you want.” Beaming up at Max, Kate closed the distance between them and pecked Max on the cheek as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Loving the blush spreading across Max’s cheeks- after all, now they were matching- Kate began to walk with her once more, unable to stop herself from looking up and grinning at Max. She knew things couldn’t be this good forever- sooner or later, they’d have to head back to Blackwell, but for now? She could be happy with her girlfriend, confident in caring for her and in a great future with her.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is pretty much the first thing I've written in a long-ass time, and I mostly did it to get back into the swing of things, see if I remembered how to put one word in front of the other. I hope you liked it, and I hope I can get back on the literary horse.


End file.
